Sunday, December 17, 2006

'De Paris à Moscou sur ses Échasses'In 1891, Sylvain Dornon walked 1830 miles between Paris and Moscowon stilts at an average of about 30 miles a day (~58 days total).

"The Tchankats are shepherds of Landes, in France, a race who passed their lives on stilts, crossing forests and rivers of venomous snakes without danger. They have now almost died out, and Sylvain Dornon, whose portrait we give, is one of the last of the tribe. He made himself notorious by walking from his native village to Paris on his stilts and even ascending the Eifel Tower on those wooden supports."(sic)[this was written before the Moscow walk]

'Sham battle on stilts, between two trained parties, at Namur.' ~1870.

"Chinese acrobatics reached a high level of sophistication as early as the Warring States Period during the third century BC, with acrobats proficient at juggling seven daggers while manipulating 3-meter stilts".

"The city of Namur in Belgium, which formerly suffered from the overflowing of the rivers Sambre and Meuse, has been celebrated for its stilt-walkers for many centuries. Not only the towns-people but also the soldiers used stilts, and stilt-fights were indulged in, in which parties of a hundred or more attacked each other, the object being to overset as many of the enemy as possible. The governor of Namur having promised the archduke Albert (about 1600) a company of soldiers that should neither ride nor walk, sent a detachment on stilts, which so pleased the archduke that he conferred upon the city perpetual exemption from the beer-tax, no small privilege at that time".

Merchtem, Belgium: "At the end of World War 2, fairs and processions were organised everywhere in Belgium to celebrate the liberation. Langevelde came up with the idea to let their people, dressed in paper clothes in the national tricolour, walk on stilts of different heights."

Possibly the first (western) artistic rendering of a stilt walker is in Pieter Bruegel the Elder's 'Childrens Games' painting from 1559 (click top picture, get magnifying glass and look just a little to the right of dead centre).

This is actually the vestiges of a post that was eaten by the beige box gremlin. Most of the images here come from NYPL plus french ebay, BNF or are within the above links. All the images have been cleaned up to one extent or another.

Thanks for sharing that anthology of stilt images. I remember seeing once prints of stilt walkers in Gomera - a particularly athletic brand who crossed the rocky hills using some sort of stilt, possibly one only if that qualifies...fabulous images, thanks. Nigel